I made the Millionaire Brisket as part of my International Smoke Day feast yesterday. This is my 10 pound packer after trimming and rubbing.

After the flat was cooked to final temperature, I split off the point and returned the point to the grill in a pan with the juices. I later cut the point into cubes for burnt ends. The flat was foiled and left to rest in a cooler.

The finished flat is in the foreground with the burnt ends in the aluminum pan next to it. The burnt ends were a huge hit at my party, they disappeared quickly. The flat was moist and also received a lot of compliments.

My critique. The brisket turned out good, but I am not a fan of mop sauces. When I mopped, a lot of the rub got rinsed off the meat. I also think the moisture from the mop keeps the bark from developing on the flat.

The above images are also on my Smoke Day blog and can be enlarged there for better viewing.

I did the M Brisket following the recipe in BBQ USA (Indirect) and it turned out alright ... I guess. Seeing as this was my first brisket I really did'nt have anything to go by as a comparison.
The CG kept a steady 300 all the way through and the brisket hit 190 in about 4 1/2 hours which was sooner than I had anticipated per the recipe. I foiled it,wrapped it in towels and let it rest for about an hour. It turned out nice and tender and had a nice flavor to it but for whatever reason I expected more. No big deal as since it was my first one I surely have not learned it all just yet. LOL

One big plus was it made for some killer sandwiches on bakery fresh hardrolls the next day. I ate them all week long for supper and froze a few small chunks for down the road.

Did'nt have a problem with the mop sauce washing the rub off and ended up with some decent bark. Maybe because I waited to mop it until 2 hours into the cook? Another thing,I don't really mop it per say it's more a baste as I don't let the mop touch the meat like I've seen some folks do.

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to doing another one except next time I will try dropping the temp to the 250-275 range and see what happens.

Hope that you keep this thread going for at least a liltle while longer. I am new to the board and would love to try various recipes. Last week I tried the First Time Ribs but didn't want to post because I had no pics or notes to share. This week I tried the Millionaire Brisket and have a few notes to share no pics however (thanks to a wild weekend in Vegas I am between digital cameras). So here goes...

6:00 AM - Alarm goes off letting me know that it is time to start a long day of smoking
6:10 - 7:00 - Decided that after working 13 days in a row I could care less if another piece of meat ever gets smoked again
7:10 - Wife informs me that if I ever want to smoke again I will either go downstairs and get to work or throw the alarm out the window. She will only put up with so much of my bizarre behavior, and even less if she can't have some good BBQ to show for her troubles.
7:15 - Pull brisket out of fridge and begin to wander around the house trying to decide what I should be doing
7:30 - Start my first chimney of charcoal.
8:00 - Even though the Chargriller has only reached 175 degrees decide to add brisket and hope for the best
8:30 - Grill reaches 220 degrees
9:00 - Flip brisket and add mop sauce for the first time
9:30 - Begin to panic grill has reached nearly 300 degrees and shows no signs of slowing. Decide to close damper half way and add water pan to control heat better
9:50 - Now it not hot enough. Stir coals and start another chimney to try to bring heat up from 200
10:10 - Remember that I have closed dampers earlier. Open dampers to try and bring heat up, seems like a simple enough solution. Also flip meat and add mop sauce again.
11:00 - Temp somewhat stabilized flip meat and add more mop sauce
12:00 - Added mop sauce and rotated, without flipping 90 degrees, checked meat temp and found it to be about 140 degrees
1:00 - Checked internal temp approx 150 degrees
2:15 - At friends request break down and cut into meat. It has not reached 190 but is holding a constant temp and looking wonderful. Cut into meat and find it to be a nice gray color throughoug.
2:30 - Eat my first brisket sandwich of the day with a fresh hardroll and some leftover BBQ sauce from last week.
5:50- Writing post and waiting for any ill effects from pulling meat off of the smoker too early. So far so good but I will keep you posted as conditions progress.

You said the brisket temp was holding constant? Sounds to me like it may have been at the plateau. That's where the connective tissue starts breaking down into gelatin, where the magic happens. I'm pretty sure it was done enough you won't get sick, but I'm no expert.

Temp control will come with practice. You'll get a feel for how to add fuel and control the dampers. Just remember it takes time for the temps to stabilize. So give it some time after opening doors or adjusting dampers and you'll be fine.

Rob,
Thanks for the input, roughly 24 hours later and I'm still going strong and no complaints from my friends so I would say we're in the clear. I think I do need to be a little more patient when watching my temp. I would get flustered and try a couple of different fixes at once instead of one at a time and waiting to see how things changed.
The ribs were great, by the way! I only got to have a couple myself, I was snacking during the smoke so was a little full by the time things were done. I went back later to get some and found a pile of bones. I was the only one that tried the sauce, everyone said the ribs were so good alone they didn't want to cover up any of the flavor with sauce.